(Up for Adoption) Cinmere the Rockruff

Cinmere lived a relatively happy life, despite the fact that his tribe of Lycanroc lived in a rough environment near the top of a secluded mountain range. They lived side by side to a number of Mystery Dungeons, as well as a rival tribe of dragon types. Although they lived in the wild, the pack was far from feral - they had their own culture, and they often used spare or scavenged materials to create visual art. Education was far behind what a city 'mon would have received, but Cinmere learned at least basic mathematics, literacy and science.

His parents were the leaders of the pack, and as their oldest child, he was set to take their place when they passed away, as was tradition.

He was closer to his father than his mother, as she was often busy leading patrols, searching for food, or fighting the rival tribe. He wasn't held on a pedestal by the other children, despite his status as the future successor, and befriended many of the Rockruff pups in the pack. Not everything was perfect, of course. Their fighters often came back from the borders of their territory heavily wounded, if they came back at all. Cinmere was trained for combat and survival at a young age like every other pup. He was considered average, and Lunihar outdid him in both categories, to his annoyance and her smug glee.

When they were young children, he had a bitter rivalry with his younger sister by a year, Lunihar. The two of them clashed in too many ways, especially as Lunihar was very outspoken about her revolutionary ideas. She didn't believe that their current method of choosing the next leader was fair, not just to her, but to everyone in the pack. As well, she believed that the pack should move to someplace less treacherous, which was all but insanity to them, because that would mean leaving behind the Starfalls. The Starfalls were a series of waterfalls, and the pack believed that their dead packmates would climb it to reach the afterlife. Leaving it behind would, to them, effectively be damning their dead.

Cinmere always sided with their parents against Lunihar out of loyalty to them, and this only further widened the divide between the siblings. As incidents piled up, the divide between the children grew. They teased each other, played mean-spirited tricks, broke each other's things and injured each other during "play" fights. For a brief while, their parents let this slide, believing it to be normal rivalry between siblings. However, it quickly became clear that they were going too far. They managed to keep Cinmere and Lunihar from teasing each other by punishing them when they tormented their sibling, but they had no clue how to get their children to repair their relationship. The two eventually just ignored each other, and their childhood hatred cooled to apathy towards the other.

Things didn't change until Cinmere was ambushed by a cadet from the dragon tribe, an ambitious Vibrava not much older than him, hungry for glory. He had been walking alone when he was attacked, and it was Lunihar who saved his life, holding off the Vibrava until the adults arrived. She had been tracking the scent of prey when she heard the sound of a fight and her sibling's voice. By the end of this encounter, the brother and sister were both alive, although badly injured. They were practically forced to speak with each other, stuck side by side in the medicine den, facing weeks before they were well enough for training again. It was extremely awkward for a while, but as they spoke, they realized they had more than a little in common. Although it was still strained, their relationship improved over the weeks that they healed.

Lunihar invited her brother to explore one of the nearby Mystery Dungeons with her. They kept up the pretense of teasing each other, if to a much less severe degree than before. As they went on more and more adventures like this, it became clear that there wasn't any malice behind it anymore. Their parents kept a close eye on them, just in case they were reverting to the way they acted as children, but the bitterness behind their rivalry had faded bit by bit.

All might have been well, if not for the enemies lurking at their doorstep, growing stronger with each passing month. Supplies were growing scarce and less warriors were coming home. The darkest day of the pack came when one of their scouts reported that the dragon tribe had all but emptied their camp. Almost all of their warriors were marchings towards the Lycanroc pack, and they clearly intended for this to be a decisive strike. The pack was badly outnumbered. After talking through their options, the two leaders made a decision: If he agreed, Cinmere was to be escorted off the pack's territory, so that their successor could rebuild the pack and reclaim the Starfalls if the worst were to come and the pack fell tonight.

Cinmere initially refused, only agreeing to leave after a heated fight with Lunihar, where his sister insisted that he had to go. He was worried sick about the others, but he knew he wouldn't have been any help in the fight - the weak Pokemon he and Luni had bested in Mystery Dungeons were nothing compared to hardened dragon warriors. He left, and managed to survive on his own until reaching Rainfront Town using the survival skills his old pack had taught him and more than a slight amount of luck. His first priority is to grow strong enough to fend for himself before returning to check on the others. He doesn't know if they won or lost that battle, but if they lost... well, he wants to be prepared before going back, in case the dragon tribe is still there.

The reality is that the pack was slaughtered that night. They fought well and came up with a cunning plan to evacuate and take over the enemy tribe's camp while all their best fighters were away. The first stage of this plan worked, and the pack ambushed the enemy warriors on their way home, who had assumed the pack had fled. However, they were simply outnumbered and outfought. They died that night, down to their final pup. Although he pushes away the possibility as best he can, Cinmere is the final survivor, save for one other: The Deserter, Lunihar, who ran away during the chaos of combat and refused to die for a pack she felt never valued her.